Letter: National debt a worry for youth

It makes total sense that if you don’t have enough money to pay for something you want, you shouldn’t buy it. Why can’t our government see that spending is not the solution to our problems?

I listen to the news regularly, and for months now they have been talking about how much America is in debt. This worries me. I am in eighth grade, and I am worried that my friends and I are not going to be able to pay for college and get a good job if the national debt keeps going up.

If I do get a job, I don’t want most of my income being used to pay off the debt that the current generation is building. I would like the same opportunities that my parents, along with all the generations since America was founded in 1776, have had.

In social studies, I recently learned that in the 1920s, people bought many things on credit. When the stock market crashed in 1929, people did not have the ability to pay the money back and many fell deeply into debt.

Today, America is doing the same thing. We are buying things on credit with money we do not have, just hoping the economy stays stable.

I’m 13 years old, and I understand simple math: Don’t spend more than you are able to pay back. Maybe it’s time for our politicians to revisit middle school history and mathematics. America, please stop spending money so that your children can have the same opportunity you had.